: At Northern Arizona University (NAU), two of our goals are to increase the number of Native Americans majoring in the biomedical sciences and to increase the academic performance, retention, and graduation rates of these students. This program proposes to serve Native American students at two community college campuses: Dine College at Tsaile and Dine College at Shiprock. The proposed program requests 3 years of funding to introduce Native American students to baccalaureate and career opportunities in the biomedical sciences. As a result of this program, we plan to support and encourage a larger number of Native American students to pursue degree and career opportunities in the biomedical sciences. We also plan to increase the number of students that transfer to NAU from Dine College and to increase the retention and academic performance of these students once on the NAU campus. To achieve our goals, we plan to implement a Bridges to the Baccalaureate Degree Program, The specific aims of the program are: 1) To conduct an annual program to provide students at Dine college with information regarding career opportunities in the biomedical sciences and to encourage them to choose to pursue a baccalaureate degree in the biomedical sciences. 2) To develop a program of research seminars at Dine College with a goal of encouraging Native American students to pursue research and career opportunities in the biomedical sciences. 3) To provide up to ten annual scholarships to students at Dine College with a goal of encouraging the most promising students to become part of the Bridge program. 4) To host a 2-day orientation program at NAU to introduce Dine students and faculty to our campus, our research and laboratory facilities, faculty mentors that did not present seminars, and our minority academic support system. 5) To provide an 8-week summer research experience for up to ten students and two faculty from Dine College each under the direction of an NAU faculty mentor, with a goal of encouraging Native American students to pursue research opportunities in the biomedical sciences. 6) To provide a laboratory skills workshop and field work experience for the ten Native American students participating in the summer research experience. 7) To continue to provide research opportunities for Native American students who transfer from Dine College to biomedically related degree programs at NAU. Students will be encouraged to join active research programs funded through our Minority Student Development and Howard Hughes Medical Institute programs.